"I am not a caped crusader": Clinical legal education and professional identity formation

• Published in: University of British Columbia law review Vol. 49; no. 1; pp. 105 - 160
• Main Author: Buhler, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia Law Review Society (Canada) 01-01-2016
• Subjects: Clinical legal education; Educational aspects; Law; Law students; Law teachers; Lawyers; Professional education; Psychological aspects; Social aspects; Social justice; Study and teaching (Clinical education); Surveys; CANADA
• ISSN: 0068-1849

Clinical legal education has been identified as a method for teaching students to reflect critically on legal institutions and legal practice, an antidote for law students' disengagement from social justice ideals, and a transformative site for the development of professional identity.However, very little empirical research addresses the experiences of students in clinical law programs or the impact of clinical legal education on students' ideas about lawyering and professional identity. In an era where experiential legal education, including clinical legal education, is arguably ascendant within Canadian law faculties and beyond, it is important to learn more about the clinical legal education experiences of students. In particular, it is important to learn how participation in clinical programs affects students' professional identities, their approaches to legal practice, and their ideas about the role of law and lawyers in struggles for social justice. In this study, I conducted 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews with former College of Law clinical law students. All of the students had participated in the College of Law's clinical law program between 2007 and 2012. The program is situated at a community-based clinic called CLASSIC (Community Legal Services for Saskatoon Inner City). My goal was to learn about students' professional identity formation during the clinical law program, and in particular to examine whether students' clinical experiences engendered critical perspectives about law and their roles and identities within the legal profession.